Hong Kong authorities Wednesday said they have banned the import of poultry meat and products from some areas of Poland, France, Britain as well as the Czech Republic and Croatia.
The Center for Food Safety (CFS) of Hong Kong's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said it took the decision in view of notifications from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
In the first 11 months of 2015, Hong Kong imported about 18,700 tons of frozen poultry meat and 4.8 million poultry eggs from Poland, about 14,000 tons of frozen and chilled poultry meat and 17.4 million poultry eggs from France, and about 14,500 tons of frozen and chilled poultry meat and 660,000 poultry eggs from Britain, according to the CFS.
Since Hong Kong has not established any protocol with the Czech Republic and Croatia for imports of poultry meat and eggs, there is no import of such commodities from the Czech Republic and Croatia.
"The CFS has contacted the Polish, French, Czech, Croatian and British authorities over the issues and will closely monitor information issued by the OIE on avian influenza outbreaks in the countries concerned," the CFS said.
